Global Crossing offered to acquire Fibernet for $96.1 million (£50.6 million) Friday, valuing the British broadband fiber networking company at $1.48 (78 pence) per share.

A United Kingdom subsidiary of Global Crossing, GC Acquisitions U.K. Limited, will acquire all of the shares of Fibernet Group under the deal, which has been approved by the Fibernet board. The companies expect the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter.

Global Crossing has seen its ups and downs over the years. The Florham Park, New Jersey-based company rose rapidly during the dot-com boom amid speculation that businesses and consumers would need ever greater amounts of broadband capacity to satisfy the growing demands of the Internet.

But when the market crashed in the early part of the decade, and many telecommunications providers were left with unused capacity, the expensive investments that Global Crossing had made in building a high-speed fiber optic network across the Atlantic Ocean turned out to be premature, and the company’s stock price took a spectacular fall.

Company founder Gary Winnick also found himself in the crosshairs of investors and he resigned from the company. But when he took the company public back in 1998 and it soared from $9.50 per share to $64 within seven months and reached a market cap of $47 billion, the company was flying high.

Mr. Winnick paid a record-setting price for an estate in Los Angeles. After the dot-com crash, Global Crossing’s shares slid precipitously, and by October 2001 they were trading for about $0.50 each.

Back from the Brink

Global Crossing went bankrupt in January 2002 and emerged from Chapter 11 in December 2003.

Now that it has restructured, the company seems to be in a position to capitalize on the increasing demand for broadband capacity as more consumers watch video, download music, and share photos over the web, while business demand across the world increases for Internet bandwidth.

“This is a great transaction for our company and for Fibernet,” Global Crossing CEO John Legere said in a statement.

He pointed out that Global Crossing and Fibernet have complementary businesses in the U.K., and he looked forward to integrating the two companies’ networks and expanding the number of products and customers the companies will service.

Shares of Global Crossing rose $0.43 to $15.19 in recent trading, while shares of Fibernet climbed 4.75 pence ($0.09) to 75.75 pence ($1.43).

Investing and Growing

Global Crossing is following an “invest and grow” strategy to increase its business serving multinational companies and service providers. Through the Fibernet deal, Global Crossing will acquire customers such as IBM, the Bank of England, Citigroup, and Carphone Warehouse.

Fibernet also offers a nationwide fiber network across the U.K. with networks in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and Reading, as well as in Frankfurt, Germany. In the fiscal year ended August 31, 2005, Fibernet reported revenue of £47.9 million ($90.4 million).

Fibernet sees advantages in the combination. “In an increasingly competitive market, where the consolidation of two complementary businesses can deliver a stronger combined company, I believe that this union will provide an enhanced position for the interests of stakeholders overall,” Charles McGregor, chief executive of Fibernet, said in a statement.

Global Crossing spokesperson Becky Yeamans declined to comment, citing restrictions imposed by the legal process for how such offers work in the U.K.